2011 in Review: American Sports

When we come to the last day of 2011, we will look back with a sigh of relief that we got to see at least some action from America's 4 big professional sports leagues. At one stage in 2011, we were looking at a scenario that the NHL would be the only professional sports league running after the conclusion of the MLB season with the NFL and NBA on strike after an impasse had been reached on a new collective agreement.



While the NFL miraculously managed to sort out a deal which saw only the Annual Hall of Fame game in Canton cancelled, we were set for a nuclear winter in the NBA until right at the death, a deal was sorted between the NBA and players to enable the season to start on Christmas Day.

It has to be said that short term pain is often necessary to achieve long term results. Let's hope that both the NFL and NBA have done that with their latest collective bargaining agreements.

On the field though, all of America's professional leagues witnessed some thrilling conclusions to their seasons.

Early in February, Dallas played host to one of the best Super Bowls in recent times - we've actually had a few of these in the last few seasons. Pittsburgh and Green Bay took on each other in a clash of the NFL's most traditional teams. Green Bay fended off tremendous pressure from Pittsburgh to win 31-25, the perfect climax to a strong run of form in the playoffs going into Super Bowl XLV having started the playoffs as one of the wildcards.

The city of Dallas would host two other Finals in 2011. While the beloved Cowboys fell to the Super Bowl host curse, the Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks would more than make up for that disappointment.

The Mavericks took on the star-studded Miami Heat and triumphed thanks to MVP Dirk Nowitzki. The lanky German finally got his hands on a winner's medal after all these years and his brilliant form inspired his teammates to beat the likes of Dwayne Wade and LeBron James 4-2 in the series and a first NBA title for the Mavs.

Unfortunately the Rangers couldn't repeat their city's basketball team efforts and win their maiden title. This after they came so close to clinching their first World Series in Game 6 only to throw away the game and the series. Admittedly, Game 6 will go down as one of the most exciting games ever played in the World Series with the St Louis Cardinals coming back late twice from behind to win in overtime.

As for the Cardinals, their never-die attitude paid huge dividends. After all, they were written off by many from playoff contention in August after they were so far behind the Milwaukee Brewers in their division. They made the playoffs as one of the wildcards then beat the Brewers to clinch a World Series spot and beat the elected favourites in the World Series. Albert Pujols was MVP in what turned out to be his last series for the Cardinals - he is going to the reformed Miami Marlins team next season. Nevertheless, Pujols helped secure the Cardinals' reputation as one of the great clubs in world baseball.

The other professional league's finals series also came down to a deciding game 7. The NHL Finals Series saw the Vancouver Canucks take on the Boston Bruins. The Canucks were the favourites this time and started off with a 2-0 series lead. However, they threw it away with very poor performances outside Rogers Arena and let the Bruins back in.

When it came to Game 7 in Vancouver, the Bruins thrashed the Canucks 4-0 to win the Stanley Cup and cue the angriest and most violent reaction by the home fans in a while.


It was almost on par with the London riots which took place later in 2011 and was negative coverage for a city which had done a magnificent job hosting the Winter Olympics over a year before. Downtown Vancouver resembled a war zone with shops looted and cars burnt.





It somewhat soured the Boston Bruins' NHL triumph and soured Vancouver's reputation as good hosts. However, this photo taken during the riots made for one of the google search results of the year.

The remarkable story of 2011 in American sport has got to be the shock and meteoric rise of Tim Tebow from college star to NFL star.

Having spent 2010 learning the game from the sidelines, Tebow was given the quarterback job after Kyle Orton was deemed a failure by Denver Broncos coach, John Fox. He was given a trial period and was 1-1 after two games - the 2nd game was an absolute hiding by the Detroit Lions at home which people thought would be the end of Tim Tebow as a star.

Alas 6 games later, Tim Tebow's record is 7-1 and the Denver Broncos are in control of the AFC West and  seem destined for the playoffs after being 2-4. Tebow has polarised people over his Christian beliefs and whether he is a viable NFL quarterback in the future - due to the lack of a proper throwing arm and some uninspiring stats. But what can't be debated is that he is intelligent to realize the limitation of his abilities yet has made the most of them and at the same time, inspired his teammates around him to perform.

Tim Tebow is right now the hottest name in American sport - Tebowing has now replaced planking as the thing to do while in front of your mobile phone's camera - and given his associations with Christianity, that isn't a bad thing. Who knows how long the ride will be but whenever that ends, it has been one heck of a ride and made the end of 2011 quite compelling.




So what does 2012 bring? Well we could see the first unbeaten team in the NFL since the great Miami Dolphins, i.e. Aaron Rodger's Green Bay Packers, and surely the Miami Heat will break their duck and win the NBA title. But American sport is one of the most competitive and exciting so anything is possible..

Even the Seattle Mariners making the MLB playoffs.